Basel World Photo Essay: A Night Of Friends, Watches, And Schnitzel

There is a lot to love about Basel World - the obvious, like 1300 exhibiting timepiece manufactures all within a square mile - and there is a lot one can do without - the long days, endless meetings, bathrooms oddly placed in smoke-filled stairwells and seeming total unavailability of lunch food beyond bratwurst. But, without a doubt the best thing about Basel World is getting to see friends you don't often see, sitting down over a beer and just having fun. You see, the watch world is, at the end of the day, a rather small one, and the majority of us are dear friends. Sure, we may write for this blog and they might write for that blog, and person X might slave away tirelessly and brilliantly with little aclaim, while person Y might be a media darling, but at the end of the day, we are all friends and while Basel is business for all of us, we make sure to take a night off from the glad handing to do what we want to do - and this post shows you exactly what we want to do.

Since I've been coming to Basel World, i've joined some good friends, like Frank from Monochrome, Gerard from In2Watches, and Robert-Jan from FratelloWatches for a saturday night of schnitzel and beer. Last year, the group grew to include several other friends, like Ernie from Watchuseek, the Grönefeld Brothers, and Stepan Sarpaneva. This year, the group grew to include several more friends - so many friends in fact that we took over the entire restaurant. And, since we were all together already, it seemed like the perfect place for the folks from Timezone to present the "Watch of the Year" award to the Gronefelds.

Click through for a detailed photo report on our favorite night of the year at Basel World - schnitzel saturday shared with many of our friends, and many of the greatest watchmakers in the world. See who you can spot after the jump, and we hope you enjoy this look at the very human side of the watch industry.

For Baselworld 2014 the Grönefeld brothers are following up their One Hertz collection with the entirely new Parallax Tourbillon. Best known for their contemporary interpretation of the classic dead beat seconds complication, here brothers Tim and Bart Grönefeld bring their visual and mechanical touches to the flying tourbillon. An asymmetrical dial is set in multiple tiers that separate the chapter ring, subdials and tourbillon cage. The overall effect is reminiscent of the One Hertz, and is easily recognizable as a Grönefeld timepiece, while bringing something entirely new to the table.

This is an important win for independent watchmakers everywhere, and what is so impressive is that we have to assume that the vast majority of the 29% of the TZ population that voted for the One Hertz has never even seen one!

The Seconds Dial Takes Center Stage. The movement inside the Grönefeld One Hertz is something to behold. Ask anyone who spent some time in Geneva in January or Basel this past March, and they'll surely tell you that people are talking about this watch in a very serious way.